TRAI Plans for 11-digit Phone Numbers!

Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) is going to change the numbering schemes for Indian mobile phones because of the rising demand for telecom connections. As the population is growing immensely, it is expected that nearly 3.28 billion telephone connections are needed by 2050 while there are 1.2 billion telephone connections now. To solve the issue, TRAI is planning to change the digits in a phone number from 10 to 11! It is reported that all the numbers (10-digit) starting with 9, 8, 7 can grant 2.1 billion connections.

A 13-digit number series have already been introduced by the government for the Internet of Things and machine-machine communications. But by 2050, more than 2.6 billion numbers are required. It is known that earlier in 1993 and 2003, India had reviewed its numbering plans. The 2003 numbering plan had created room for 750 million phone connections, out of which 450 million for cellular and 300 for basic or landline phones. TRAI believes that the current availability of numbering resources is not enough because of the rise in the number of mobile connections and so 11-digit numbers are being considered.

Not just mobile phones but fixed line numbers could also move to 10-digit numbering. Shifting data-only mobile numbers, for dongle connections, from 10 digits to 13 digits numbering may also help and vacate certain number series starting from 3, 5 and 6. The deadline for public comments is October 21 and counter comments are November 4.

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